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Kati Vaughan

Clementz

WRIT-2

11 March 2018

Translating Genres: School Shootings

Overlooking the little things in life is what humans do best. Whether that be looking over

the little triumphs in the day or even looking over the logistics behind a complicated system,

people tend to look at the big picture. This even applies in the realm of genres. People do not

tend to think about the logistics behind what they are reading, listening to, or looking at;

naturally they focus on the meat of the piece in which they are reading. In everyday life,

individuals do not realize how one piece of literature can perfectly exemplify its genre but can

also fulfill the conventions and “guidelines” of another genre just as well. Think of a serious

article that fulfills all of the criteria that one would think an article entails. The same ideas could

be presented in a recipe with very different intentions, appealing to very different audiences, and

utilizing very different syntax and tone which changes the presentation of the article. A writer’s

creative side can run wild when it comes to these genre translations; deciding what stays and

what goes, which genre to translate it to, the decision is in the palm of their hands. The song

“Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People, addresses the unusual topic of gun violence and

school shootings by following the “guidelines” associated with a song. However, when translated

into a news article, the whole premise of the piece is changed to fit under the “guidelines” of this

new genre. Each genre tackles the same topic with different intentions which, in turn, leads them

to utilize different stylistic conventions and elements to appeal and persuade their own

audiences.
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When glancing over a piece of work, the conventions and structure pop out, allowing the

reader to easily define what type of genre it falls under. For example, it is evident that “Pumped

Up Kicks” utilizes repetition which is common considering repetition is a convention used

throughout all of music. Unlike a song, one will not find a news article containing any repetitive

information because it does not fall under the “guidelines” of this genre. In a news article, the

author gets to the point very quickly by blatantly laying out facts. For example, in the translation

“Parkland, Fl. School Shooting” facts are presented in a short and informative manner. They

state, “he fatally shot 17 and wounded 14” (“Parkland, Fl. School Shooting”); it gets straight to

the point in an authoritative manner. It is evident when translating “Pumped Up Kicks” into a

news article, conventions in the song drastically changed in order to follow the “guidelines”

found in its new genre. Despite the article and song both containing short choppy sentences, the

information in the news article is more informative and based upon facts unlike the song which

describes a story. For example, they continuously state “You better run, better run, outrun my

gun” (Hook line 2) where they are acting as if they are the person holding the gun and advising

the kids to “outrun my gun”. These lyrics tell a story rather than lay out events of an incident like

they would in the article. Lyrics in all music create vivid imagery that draw upon the listeners

emotions; So, when translating it into a source that is supposed to remain unbiased and neutral, it

was critical to recall events from numerous perspectives and not just the authors.

The word choice of a genre is a key factor in defining which genre is what. When

translating the two sources, it was evident that the language had to be altered to fit under each

genre’s “guidelines”. Vivid language and imagery are commonalities found all throughout

music. Foster the People are very descriptive in their words and describes the scene to make it

feel as if you were there. With phrases such as “he’s got a rolled cigarette// hanging out his
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mouth, he’s a cowboy kid” (verse 1 lines 3-4) it further sets the scene for the listener and allows

them to feel the emotions of the shooter. However, in a news article the author will avoid “fluff”

and get straight to the point to achieve its goal of informing the public. They tend to choose

language that is basic in order for the public to get through it quickly and not have to read in

between the lines or analyze what the author is trying to say, unlike in a song. This is evident in

the genre translation where descriptive phrases of what the active shooter looked like were

omitted. However, description such as “he was expelled” or “he was a considered a loner” were

necessary in order to help the audience gage the situation. The story behind the words in

“Pumped Up Kicks” are still found in the article, however presented with much less detail and

much more brevity. Stating “cause dinner’s in the kitchen and it’s packed in ice” (Verse two line

4) is not a vital phrase in a news article. Instead, it could state “he had a tough home life” which

in turn, gets the same idea out to the audience but in a more direct way and fulfills the goal of the

piece. Just as stated in chapter one of Scott McCloud’s book, Making Comics, “you need to learn

which elements of a work can persuade your audience to stay with you” (p. 9). This furthers the

idea that when translating pieces, an individual might have to omit or even add elements that will

get the audience “to stay with you”.

The conventions and word choice of a specific genre ultimately appeal to their intended

audiences and contribute to the overall purpose behind the piece; So, when “the audience

changes, your message has to change, sometimes drastically” (Reid pg. 9). “Pumped Up Kicks”

falls under the genre of alternative music which directly appeals to a wider audience, typically

aged 10-30, who is attracted to this style of music. This song highlights the very heavy topic of

gun violence and school shootings which seems to be hidden by the upbeat rhythm and light-

hearted tone and sound. Many kids, including myself, would sing this song in the car with no
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worries and were oblivious to the true meaning and reference to school shootings; However, that

was the intention, to have a song that someone will listen to over and over again, a song that will

inspire their audience to gain a liking for that groups music; It’s purpose is to entertain. Foster

the People were not directly looking to warn the public about school shootings unlike an article,

however they were still able to insert this topic into society in a creative way. Unlike the catchy

alternative track, a news article would appeal to an older audience rather than a group of kids to

young adults like the song ultimately does. The purpose behind any news article would be to

inform their audience about the events at hand by laying out the facts and getting to the point

straight away. The goal of any news article is to bring the public accurate, factual information at

the fastest rate possible and avoid beating around the bush. Hence why short sentence structure

and facts were presented rather than catchy lyrics in the translation.

When translating the alternative hit “Pumped Up Kicks” into a serious news article,

information found in the primary source were integrated and excluded. When solely looking at

the two genres, it seems like a daunting task to translate a song which focuses on rhythmic

language chock full of lyrics that require reading in between the lines unlike an article which

focuses on facts about an incident that recently occurred. When boiling down the lyrics and ideas

presented in “Pumped Up Kicks”, it is clear that Foster the People are discussing the topic of

school shootings which were very easy to present in an article. In the song it never blatantly

states that a school shooting is occurring, but it can be inferred when it states, “all the other kids

with the pumped-up kicks//you better run, better run, faster than my bullet” (Hook lines 3-4). On

the contrary, an individual does not have to infer what is happening in the article because it

blatantly states there was a school shooting in the first sentence. Or in the song it states, “He’ll

look around the room, he won’t tell you his plan” (Verse 1 line 2) revealing that no one knows
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about the event that is about to occur versus the article where it states “he proceeded to take out

his rifle and shoot in the crowded halls and classrooms according to witnesses at the

scene”(“Parkland, Fl. School Shooting”). This presents the same idea but in a very different way

than the song. Another example is when the song states “Daddy works a long day//he be coming

home late he be coming home late//And he’s bringing me a surprise” (Verse 2 lines 1-3) which at

first sounds ordinary but in reality, the surprise would be something like a beating revealing

troubles at home. The article presents this information in a very different light by blatantly

stating “he had a hard and troubled past” (“Parkland, Fl. School Shooting”) which fulfills the

“guidelines” of a news article. It is evident that the transformation converts the same information

from one source to another while simultaneously fulfilling the “guidelines” of their respected

genres.

This task appeared very easy but very quickly turned into one that took more time than

intended. The lack of content in a song was the biggest challenge and concern when trying to

translate it into an article. The song kept repeating itself and left me with little to work with other

than the three main ideas explained above. In order to successfully translate this song into an

article, I had to add in more information and add more detail about the actual shooting that took

place. Since the article did not blatantly state which school shooting it was talking about, I was

able to talk about the Parkland shooting which had shocking similarities to the song at hand.

Furthermore, “Pumped Up Kicks” was very broad and left many details to be interpreted by the

listener, so I was able to run with it and create an article about the shooting that has been a topic

of discussion in the past month. Despite changing the presentation of the content, I was

successful in preserving the ideas in the song by including the main points but adding more

factual evidence and events which, sadly, actually occurred.

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Translating genres is a daunting task when considering that an individual has to change

the audience, the way the information is presented, and the overall purpose, however if an

individual finds the main points and meaning in one source it becomes much easier to translate it

to another. When just glancing at these two genres, it seems nearly impossible that the same

information can coexist in both of these, however it can. The idea of a school shooting in a song

is out of the ordinary so translating it to a source that would be more likely to present this

information was easier than anticipated. However, it further reveals that any topic can be

translated to another genre even if it does not seem like it can. At the end of the day, it boils

down to what topic was presented and what points were made about the said topic. Once some

individual finds that out, translating because an easy task and it is all about the context of the

piece. Presentation and context is the key to success.

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Works Cited

“Foster the People – Pumped Up Kicks.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., 14 Oct. 2010,
genius.com/Foster-the-people-pumped-up-kicks-lyrics.

McCloud, Scott. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels.
Harper, 2007.

“Parkland, Fl. School Shooting” The Nightly News 11 Mar. 2018

Reid, Shelley. Ten Ways to Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musing for College Writing

Students. 2011.

Peer Edits/ Revision:

- Primarily changed some sentence structures

- Changed grammar

- Cited my translation more

- Cite two new outside sources which was addressed in the prompt
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